Earlier, the US President Donald Trump, ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats, including 48 employees of the Russian Embassy and 12 people who have been assigned to the United Nations in New York.

Russain Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Washington has once again directed false accusations at Russia, and that it threatens and attempts to turn everything upside-down.

"We are open to constructive work, we will continue it, but without a tough response to yesterday's decision by the US authorities against our diplomatic missions, the current situation will not persist," Ryabkov said.

"I would like to express the hope that, nevertheless, a healthy beginning, which I am sure remains in the approach to relations with Russia, at least among some responsible figures in the United States, will sooner or later prevail," the deputy minister added.

READ MORE: Russian Envoy Assumes Skripal's Case a Convenient Pretext to Expel Diplomats

The deputy minister noted that Russia was not abandoning the strategic stability talks with Washington.

“We need this dialogue, the presidents of our countries said about it in a telephone conversation a few days ago, we are not giving up this dialogue, we will hold it,” Ryabkov said.

Russia urges London to examine official materials instead of representing any statements made online by Russia nationals as Moscow's official position, Russian Deputy Sergei Ryabkov told Sputnik on Tuesday.

The senior official slammed the recent remarks of UK Prime Minister Theresa May about more than 20 theories allegedly provided by Moscow in connection with the substance used in the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK city of Salisbury, stressing that the UK officials "continue to talk nonsense."

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/201803271062934144-russi-skripal-us-accusa...

The difference between "spinshit" and 'fake news' is minimal. One comes directly from the government while the other tends to circulate from piss-up and booze pubs to elegant parties, to be discreetly crowd-tested before coming back to the government for final tweaking and feeding of the chooks (the journos). Some "fake news" is also manufactured on behalf of the CIA in Macedonia with a Cyrillic alphabet.

"Let the jury consider the verdict” the King said. “No, No” said the Queen: “sentence first, verdict afterwards”. “Stuff and nonsense” said Alice.

The furore surrounding the alleged nerve gas poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia shows no signs of abating. It continuously puts one in mind of the quote from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland at the head of this article. 

For those of us with fond of memories of some of the traditional virtues of common-law justice, such as the presumption of innocence, the onus of proof upon the accuser, a verdict based upon evidence beyond reasonable doubt, and a prohibition on prejudicial pre-trial comment, it all seems like a very distant past. 

The latest development has been a group of nations, largely in the European Union, but also including United States, Canada, Australia and European minnows like Albania and Macedonia, joining the collective hysteria and expelling, at the time of writing, more than 100 Russian diplomats. 

That action will achieve nothing, other than to the poison the cold war atmosphere eagerly promoted by the intellectual lightweights so prominent in the governments from United Kingdom to the United States to Australia. The few sane voices in this cacophony of nonsense, such as those of the governments of Portugal, Greece and Austria, or Die Linke’s Andreas Maurer in Germany who noted in various ways that not jumping to conclusions and actually waiting for the results of the now extant OPCW’s Technical Committee investigation, might be preferable to rushing headlong to a possible nuclear confrontation with Russia, are scarcely heard. 

British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn made similar remarks, only to be savagely attacked by members of his own party, as well as Tory leaders such as May, Johnson and Williamson. 

The careful and cautiously worded judgement of Mr Justice Williams released on 22 March 2018 has been largely ignored by the politicians and the mainstream media alike. 

Justice Williams was delivering the judgement on an application by the Secretary of State for the Home Department for permission to be given for the taking of blood samples from the Skripals for analysis by the OPCW experts in accordance with the terms of the Convention on the Prevention of Chemical Weapons. 

The Skripals were admitted to Salisbury Hospital on 4 March 2018 and it took until 14 March for the British government to invite the OPC W to assist in the technical evaluation of what had caused the Skripal’s illness. 

The Judge did not comment on why it took 10 days for this invitation to issue, particularly as the Russian government had correctly pointed out that it should have been done much earlier in accordance with the article 9 of the Convention. 

Indeed, May had issued peremptory demands for Russia to, in effect, prove its innocence within 36 hours. The application by the Home Department was necessary as the Skripals, because of their stated medical condition (in a coma, but stable) were unable to give an informed consent. The Judge presumed, probably correctly, if they were able to give consent they would do so. They have a greater interest than anyone else in determining who was responsible and holding them (or their government) to account. 

The Russian government, which clearly was an interested party as among other reasons Ms Skripal was a Russian citizen, was not a party to the proceedings, nor, it seems, were they even advised that the application was being made. The Russian government have certainly stated that, and the British government has made no denial. 

The absence of the Russians from the application would ordinarily have invited a query from the Judge. He may well have done so, but as the proceedings were held in camera, we cannot establish that. His Honour appears to have accepted a submission from Mr Sachdeva QC, acting for the Skripals, that the Russian authorities had made no attempt to seek access to the Skripals or their medical records. 

This is prima facie highly improbable, particularly given the case’s high profile. The Russian government to the contrary has claimed that all their requests for access, medical details and related evidence were ignored or refused by the British government. 

It is not possible to definitively resolve that conflict, but the weight of logic, common sense and the evidence we do have would tend to support the Russian position. 

There is no reason at this point to question the integrity of the OCPW technical evaluation. It seems likely however, that they may well not be able to ascertain precisely what substance was used to affect the Skripals. Almost certainly, neither will they be able to specify its precise origins, much less who administered it. More than three weeks after the attack we still have no clear idea as to how the poison, if that is indeed what it is, was administered. 

That qualified conclusion, which is surely known to the British government, may be a major reason why such a huge propaganda effort is currently being made before the likely inconclusive results are published. It may also account for the meaningless terminology used in statements by the UK government and others that the poison was “of a type developed by Russia.” 

That statement in itself is inaccurate. It has zero evidential value, but is clearly seen as having a powerful propaganda effect. Most casual readers of the mainstream media or viewers of the BBC and their foreign equivalents will be unaware of any of the history of nerve agents, or their possession and use by multiple countries, not least the United Kingdom itself. 

Perhaps the most depressing conclusion to be drawn from this saga is the one expressed by the commentator known as the Saker (What Happened to the West I was born in? 26 March 2018). He argues that during the previous Cold War, although the West was hardly a knight in shining armour, the rule of law did matter, as did some degree of critical thinking. Now, the West is ruled by an “ugly gang of ignorant, arrogant psychopaths”. 

Their hubris will lead to making fatal miscalculations about the degree of Russian resolve, and the ability of Russia, (as was demonstrated so effectively by Putin in his address to the joint sitting of the Russian Parliament on 1 March 2018), that rather than “shutting up and going away”, as Williamson hoped, the simple fact is that Britain will be a heap of radioactive ashes long before Russia “goes away”. 

It is significant that China’s Global Times, an official voice for the thinking of the Chinese government, sees the current attack on Russia as a prelude to a similar assault upon China as the crumbling Anglo-American Empire tries to maintain its hegemony. China has not joined the Western chorus of condemnation of Russia. Instead it sees what it describes as the “Russia China comprehensive strategic collaborative partnership” as the best safeguard against Western attack. It is for this reason that the Saker is probably too pessimistic. For the sake of our grandchildren one hopes that he was indeed wrong.

James O’Neill is a Barrister at Law and geopolitical analyst. He may be contacted at joneill@qldbar.asn.au

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2018/03/28/some-further-thoughts-on-the-skripal...

https://off-guardian.org/2018/03/28/skripal-relatives/

Read from top.

Frankly, I am awed, amazed and even embarrassed.  I was born in Switzerland, lived most of my life there, I also visited most of Europe, and I lived in the USA for over 20 years.  Yet in my worst nightmares I could not have imagined the West sinking as low as it does now.  I mean, yes, I know about the false flags, the corruption, the colonial wars, the NATO lies, the abject subservience of East Europeans, etc.  I wrote about all that many times.  But imperfect as they were, and that is putting it mildly, I remember Helmut Schmidt, Maggie Thatcher, Reagan, Mitterrand, even Chirac!  And I remember what the Canard Enchaîné used to be, or even the BBC.  During the Cold War the West was hardly a knight in white shining armor, but still – rule of law did matter, as did at least some degree of critical thinking.

I am now deeply embarrassed for the West.  And very, very afraid.

All I see today is a submissive herd lead by true, bona fide, psychopaths (in a clinical sense of the word)

And that is not the worst thing.

The worst thing is the deafening silence, the way everybody just looks away, pretends like “ain’t my business” or, worse, actually takes all this grotesque spectacle seriously.  What the fuck is wrong with you people?!  Have you all been turned into zombies?!  WAKE UP!!!!!!!

Let me carefully measure my words here and tell you the blunt truth.

Since the Neocon coup against Trump the West is now on exactly the same course as Nazi Germany was in, roughly, the mid 1930s.

Oh sure, the ideology is different, the designated scapegoat also.  But the mindset is *exactly* the same.

Same causes produce the same effects.  But this time around, there are weapons on both sides which make the Dresden Holocaust looks like a minor spark.

So now we have this touching display of “western solidarity” not with UK or the British people, but with the City of London.  Now ain’t that touching?!

Let me ask you this: what has been the central feature of Britain’s policies towards Europe, oh, let’s say since the Middle-Ages?

That’s right: starting wars in Europe.

And this time around you think it’s different?

Does: “the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior” somehow not apply to the UK?!

Let me also tell you this: when Napoleon and Hitler attacked Russia she was undergoing deep crises and was objectively weak (really! research it for yourself!).  In both cases Russian society was deeply torn by internal contradictions and the time for attack as ideal.

Not today.

So I ask this simple question: do you really want to go to war against a fully united nuclear Russia?

You think that this is hyperbole?

Think again.

The truth is that the situation today is infinitely worse than the Cuban missile crisis. First, during the Cuban missile crisis there were rational people on both side.  Today there is NOT ONE SINGLE RATIONAL PERSON LEFT IN A POSITION OF POWER IN THE USA.  Not ONE!  Second, during the Cuban missile crisis all the new was reporting on was the crisis, the entire planet felt like we were standing at the edge of the abyss.

Today nobody seems to be aware that we are about to go to war, possibly a thermonuclear war, where casualties will be counted in the hundreds of millions.

All because of what?

Because the people of the West have accepted, or don’t even know, that they are ruled by an ugly gang of ignorant, arrogant psychopaths.

At the very least this situation shows this:

Representative democracy does not work.

The rule of law only applies to the weak and poor.

Western values have now been reduced to a sad joke.

Capitalism needs war and a world hegemony to survive.

The AngloZionist Empire is about to collapse, the only open question is how and at what cost.

Right now they are expelling Russian diplomats en masse and they are feeling very strong and manly. Polish and Ukrainian politicians are undergoing a truly historical surge in courage and self-confidence! (hiding, as they do, behind Anglo firepower)

The truth is that this is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg.  In reality, crucial expert-level consultations, which are so vitally important between nuclear superpowers, have all but stopped a long time ago.  We are down to top level telephone calls.  That kind of stuff happens when two sides are about to go to war.  For many months now Russia and NATO have made preparations for war in Europe.  And Russia is ready.  NATO sure ain’t!  Oh, they have the numbers and they think they are strong.  The truth is that these NATO midgets have no idea of what is about to hit them, when the Russians go to war these NATO statelets won’t even understand what is happening to them.  Very rapidly the real action will be left to the USA and Russia.  Thus any conflict will go nuclear very fast.  And, for the first time in history, the USA will be hit very, very hard, not only in Europe, the Middle-East or Asia, but also on the continental US.

I was born in a Russian military family and I studied Russian and Soviet military affairs all my life. I can absolutely promise you this, please don’t doubt it for one second: Russia will not back down and, if cornered, she will wipe out your entire civilization. The Russians really don’t want war, they fear it (as they should!) and they will do everything to avoid it.  But if attacked then expect a response of absolutely devastating violence.  Don’t take it from me, take it from Putin who clearly said so himself and who, at least on that issue, is supported by about 95% of the population.  From the Eastern Crusades to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, enough is enough, and the Russians will not take one more western attack, especially not one backed by nuclear firepower.  Again, please ponder Putin’s words very, very carefully: “what need would we have a world if there is no Russia?“

All that for what?  The USA and Russia have NO objective reasons to do anything but to collaborate (the Russians are absolutely baffled the fact the leaders of the USA seem to be completely oblivious to this simple fact).  Okay, the City of London does have a lot of reasons to want Russia gone and silent. As Gavin Williamson, the little soy-boy in charge of UK “defense”, so elegantly put it, Russia should “go away and shut up”.  Right.  Let me tell you – it ain’t happening!  Britannia will be turned into a heap of radioactive ashes long before Russian goes away or shuts up.  That is simply a fact.

What baffles me is this: do American leaders really want to lose their country in behalf of a small nasty clique of arrogant British pompous asses who think that they still are an Empire?  Did you even take a look at Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Gavin Williamson?  Are you really ready to die in defense of the interest of these degenerates?!

I don’t get it and nobody in Russia does.

Yeah, I know, all they did is expel some diplomats.  And the Russians will do the same.  So what?  But that’s missing the point!

LOOK NOT WHERE WE ARE BUT WHERE WE ARE HEADING!!

You can get 200,000 anti–gun (sigh, rolleyes) protesters in DC but NOBODY AT ALL ABOUT NUCLEAR WAR?!

What is wrong with you people?!

What happened to the West where I was born in in 1963?

My God, is this really the end of it all?

Am I the only one who sees this slow-motion train-wreck taking us all over the precipice?

If you can, please give a reason to still hope.

Right now I don’t see many.

The Saker

PS: yes, I know. The rules of the blog prohibit CAPS as this is considered shouting.  Okay, but this time around I AM TRYING TO SHOUT!  So, for this one time only, feel free to use caps if you want.  The world badly needs some shouting right now, even virtual shouting.

Read more:

http://thesaker.is/what-happened-to-the-west-i-was-born-in/

Read also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/11276

Today's (29/3/18) editorial of The Sydney Morning Herald is embarrassing. It's full of the same shit that travels the sewer of the Potomac crap-pipe:

...

"Yet the Skripals, even with the margin of doubt that surrounds their case, have come to symbolise all of Europe's and NATO's problems with Russia. The affair is not just about the fate of the two individual targets and the policeman who helped them and was also poisoned, but all the victims, great and small, of the Putin regime's aggressions – from the dissidents and journalists who are regularly murdered for exposing corruption or malfeasance, to the victims of Russia's territorial aggression in Ukraine – not least the passengers on Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, shot down by Russian-backed rebels – to the voters in countries near and far whose elections he has rorted. The gamut of Mr Putin's mischief-making explains the breadth of anger against him over the Skripal incident."

...

There is so much "margin of doubt" on all the stuff mentioned in this rubbish that it's not worth wasting our time exposing each and every one of them. So far NO PROOF has been brought forward that Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by Russian-backed rebels nor that Russia helped DumbDumb be elected. Time to stop buying The Shitty Morning Herald and its derivative "The Aged". It does not deserve to be even used as dunny paper.

And talking of Journalists being "muzzled" in Russia, try Australia for size... Unless journos tow the line as set by the Australian government and Mr Murdoch media, no journo would find a job, which is akin to death by default. Journalists "regularly" killed in Russia? May be... I have no recall of any at the moment. Journalism murdered in Australia? A daily occurence, including by the government's decrees. 

And please ask yourself, how many countries' elections have the USA rorted? one? ten? 35? 127? Do your sums and then ask yourself what happened when the elections do not go the way the US intended? Revolution? Military coup? Shit-crap?... The answer is the three of them, sometimes altogether...

Carefully read from top... Read also:

...

Pilger argued that the way the Western media – instead of doing its job, blindly sided with the official narrative – framed the events in Salisbury is another instance in the same global propaganda effort. “It’s part of the propaganda war that the attack in Salisbury represents. Here we have Russian diplomats being expelled all over the world on the basis of no evidence.”

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned earlier in March and found unconscious in Salisbury. The UK government has blamed the attack on Russia, but Moscow denies the allegations, saying that no evidence has been presented to support the claim. Following calls from London, almost 30 states announced they would expel Russian diplomats over the case, prompting the Kremlin to announce tit-for-tat measures.

Pilger said Assange was castigated by the British government for merely saying it was “poor diplomacy”on the part of the UK to kick out Russian representatives with no independent confirmation of its rushed investigation.

“He was just suggesting that there was no evidence, but this is what this propaganda war is about. It’s a war on speaking out, it’s a war on dissent, it’s a war on the very things that I’m saying at the moment, it’s a war on journalism and requires collaborators,” Pilger said.

He cited as an example an article written by the Guardian’s James Ball. The opinion piece by Ball says Assange “has himself to blame” for invoking Ecuador’s ire, and he should “hold his hands up and leave the embassy.”

“These are not journalists, because this is about the public’s right to know and it’s the public right to know what the governments are doing. The second part of this war is about a real war. We’ve got the prospect of a real war unless this propaganda war is seen through,” Pilger said.

What made WikiLeaks and Assange the target of multiple attacks over the years is the commitment to true journalism.

“The attack on him and WikiLeaks over the years is so important because it does what journalism should be doing and that is holding power to account.”

Watch RT’s full interview with John Pilger on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=t9n5irwWHfI

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/422757-assange-propaganda-war-skripal/

Read from top...

Alan Duncan: time for this miserable earthworm to get out the embassy...

Julian Assange: Better be an earthworm, a creature that improves the soil, than be a serpent...

URGENT: In a bizarre reversal of blaming Russia, Theresa May has fully acknowledged that the poisoning charade of the Skripals was orchestrated by MI5, under instruction from her tin-pot government to embarrass Russia before the Soccer World Cup. The poison actually did not exist. The miracle recovery of both Skripal will be celebrated at Piccadilly Circus with Russian flags on top of Nelson's column, on April first...

Sorry, this item was written for the first of April and got released a tad early. I need to go to bed. 

Read from top. Good night.

The questions, provided in full below, include a demand to clarify whether samples of the nerve agent А-234 (also known as “Novichok”) have ever been developed in the UK. The embassy’s statement calls the incident that started the recent diplomatic row a “fabricated case against Russia.”

READ MORE: ‘US expelling America’s friends’: Russian Ambassador decries Trump’s move as diplomats leave DC 

1. Why has Russia been denied the right of consular access to the two Russian citizens, who came to harm on British territory?

2. What specific antidotes and in what form were the victims injected with? How did such antidotes come into the possession of British doctors at the scene of the incident?

3. On what grounds was France involved in technical cooperation in the investigation of the incident, in which Russian citizens were injured?

4. Did the UK notify the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) of France’s involvement in the investigation of the Salisbury incident?

5. What does France have to do with the incident, involving two Russian citizens in the UK?

6. What rules of UK procedural legislation allow for the involvement of a foreign state in an internal investigation?

7. What evidence was handed over to France to be studied and for the investigation to be conducted?

8. Were the French experts present during the sampling of biomaterial from Sergei and Yulia Skripal?

9. Was the study of biomaterials from Sergei and Yulia Skripal conducted by the French experts and, if so, in which specific laboratories?

10. Does the UK have the materials involved in the investigation carried out by France?  

11. Have the results of the French investigation been presented to the OPCW Technical Secretariat?

12. Based on what attributes was the alleged “Russian origin” of the substance used in Salisbury established?

13. Does the UK have control samples of the chemical warfare agent, which British representatives refer to as “Novichok”?

14. Have the samples of a chemical warfare agent of the same type as “Novichok” (in accordance to British terminology) or its analogues been developed in the UK?

READ MORE: Moscow expels diplomats of countries that kicked out Russians over Skripal case 

A similar list, containing 10 questions, was sent to the French Foreign Ministry by the Russian Embassy in Paris. According to the document, Moscow wanted to know on what grounds France was involved in the British investigation into the Skripal poisoning.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/422871-russia-questions-uk-skripal-case/

See also:

Read from top.

Here is the relevant section of Bristow’s words as they clearly appear in this footage and as the caption renders them:

“…There is also no doubt that the Novichok was produced in Russia by the Russian state.

This is how his words are being rendered on the UK government site – note the all-important missing “the”:

By removing that “the”, which is beyond doubt there in the original, they are morphing Bristow’s statement from a direct accusation about “the” novichok allegedly used to poison the Skripals, into a general statement about the generic origin of the novichok class of nerve agents 

This looks like a flagrant lie. It looks like the real-life Minitrue in operation before out eyes, flushing reality down the Memory Hole, as we discussed earlier. 

It also looks like an admission of guilt, or at least of overstepping the mark.

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2018/04/05/uk-govt-rewords-ambassadors-speech-makes-it-appear-he-didnt-say-novichok-came-from-russia/

Meanwhile:

Victoria Skripal, the niece of the former Russian intelligence officer poisoned in Salisbury, England, has given her thoughts on the incident during an interview with Russia's Channel One TV network.

The niece of Sergei Skripal referred to the Salisbury pizzeria where her uncle and his daughter were found by policemen after the March 4 incident. She pointed out that the two ordered fugu fish, a dish that should be carefully prepared to avoid a lethal poisoning.

"Is it difficult to obtain an account and see what people ordered at the restaurant? For some reason this information is classified. Did they eat some unknown dish that you cannot eat? Or is it forbidden in England?" Victoria Skripal said.

She also noted that the story of the Skripals being poisoned by a nerve agent from the door of Skripal's house holds no water. According to her, police conducted a search in Skripal's house, where she said lived "two cats and two guinea pigs."

Read more

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201804051063227285-skripal-niece-intervie...

Read from top...

Russia requested that the key UN body meet to discuss UK Prime Minister Theresa May's letter, in which she reiterated that it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

In the March 13 letter, the British prime minister gave Moscow an ultimatum to respond to her accusations, though did not present any sound evidence. Russia, in turn, has repeatedly denied any involvement in the poisoning of the Skripals on the British soil. 

Russian officials have consistently offered help in the investigation into the attack, however, London rejected Moscow's proposals.

"The main argument of the British side about the unquestionable Russian origin of the substance is no longer valid," said Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. "We also are assuming with a high degree of probability that the intelligence services of certain countries are behind this mega provocation."

"Couldn't you come up with a better fake story," the Russian envoy said about the story that Russian authorities ordered the poisoning of the Skripals. "We have told our [UK] colleagues, 'you are playing with fire, and you'll be sorry' because it's one thing to put forward unsubstantiated accusations and it's quite different to start speaking using professional terms which means not simply who will speak loudest in diplomacy, but it requires clear answers to very specific, substantial questions."

"Boris Johnson continues to convince everyone the British side supposedly sent Russia a list of questions to which it still hasn’t received any answers. Everything in fact is completely the opposite. As I said, we never received any list of questions and I turn to the British side, if you have such a list of questions, please tell us, please list those questions," Nebenzia said. 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/201804051063257743-un-security-council-skr...

Read from top. What is "highly likely" is that some (another!) false flag event was created by Western intelligence agencies in order to "embarrass the Russians some more" in this case. The problem these days, is that one, including "intelligence agencies", has to deal with a greater sceptical instant and well connected social media that feels it has been stung too many times with the likes of Bush, Blair and Howard, with a war on Saddam's WMDs — and other issues, including the Kosovo affair with Bill Clinton, and Libya and the other scandals from the previous US administrations. The usual tricks of government using "intelligence agencies" to advance their hatred of this guy or that loony does not wash with the aware public anymore. Solid proofs and proper assessments, including analysis by the designated "adversary", is necessary. Theresa May failed on all department to provide anything concrete — in the same manner than investigations in the US have not shown one single proof that Trump got any "Russian government help" to get elected.

Time to play futbol (soccer).

Earlier Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova expressed concern about the absence of information on the condition of Skripals’ pets, pointing out that information on the creatures’ fate could help the investigation.While one of the victims in the Salisbury poisoning case appears to be recovering from the ordeal, the family pets turned out to be a lot less fortunate, apparently dying of hunger and thirst after being sealed off inside the house by British investigators.

Commenting on the latest revelations

The alleged nerve agent attack in Salisbury appears to have claimed its first casualties, and they weren’t human.

According to Daily Mirror, two guinea pigs and a cat owned by Sergei Skripal perished after being found malnourished inside his residence, which was sealed by the police.

The guinea pigs appeared to have died of thirst by the time they were found, while the cat was taken to the Porton Down lab for testing but was ultimately put down because the feline "was in so much pain," the newspaper adds.

"Here's the question for the UK: where are the pets? What is their condition, why is the UK silent on the fact while it is busy referring to unidentified sources in the media?" Zakharova inquired.

READ MORE: UN Security Council Discusses Alleged Poisoning Attack Against Skripal (VIDEO)

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4, 2018 following what the British authorities claim was a chemical attack, allegedly involving the nerve agent A-234.

Following this development, London promptly blamed Moscow for carrying out this alleged attack and initiated a series of punitive measures, including the expulsion of nearly two dozen Russian diplomats and the freezing of bilateral contacts. Many of the UK's allies, including the US and a number of European states, were compelled to follow suit.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201804061063271032-skripal-pets-death-rev...

Read also:

Syria and Russia say that the latest weekend’s unverified use of chlorine gas is most likely to have been a provocation staged by the last-remaining terrorist pockets in order to prevent the final evacuation of Eastern Ghouta.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201804081063342763-cue-cw-stunt-syria/

Chlorine gas is very easy to make on a large scale. Most meat curing for "small goods" is done with "vinegar". Actually it is used in its highly concentrated form as nearly pure acetic acid (CH3COOH). Add pool Chlorine (calcium hypochlorite or sodium hypochlorite) and here you are: industrial quantity of CHLORINE GAS plus a few other residues. At this amateur level it is easy for "rebels" (terrorists) to manufacture enough of the product to create a false-flag event to make the pig in the White House turn into a nasty threatening sausage. 

Read from top...

U.S. military action against Syria may happen in the next few days:

President Trump vowed Monday that the United States would take swift action in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria, amid hurried diplomacy that signaled allied military strikes may be imminent.

The president will very likely order an illegal attack on another government in the coming days. Trump has no authority to order an attack on the Syrian government, which has not attacked the U.S. and doesn’t pose any threat to America or its allies. There is no international mandate for military action against Syria, and there is no vital American interest at stake that might conceivably justify an attack. That said, in the absence of concerted resistance from Congress and the public, he will be able to get away with this illegal attack just as he got away with the illegal attack he ordered last year. 

For all of the ceaseless clamor about Trump’s incipient authoritarianism, few of his domestic opponents care when he illegally uses military force overseas. When Trump tramples on the Constitution to wage illegal war, he is confirming the practice of his recent predecessors rather than breaking with it. Most of his domestic opponents don’t care about executive overreach and illegal warfare, and they are more likely than not to applaud him for ordering an attack.

The president incredibly suggested that attack on Syria had something to do with humanitarian concerns:

“We are very concerned when a thing like that can happen,” the president said in a somber tone. “This is about humanity. We’re talking about humanity. And it can’t be allowed to happen.”

The same president who enables war crimes and famine in Yemen has no business talking about humanity or opposing atrocities. It is not just that the Trump administration applies two radically different standards for how it responds to the atrocities committed by other governments, but also that it is actively involved in facilitating the atrocities of its clients while pretending to be horrified by the war crimes of others. Unfortunately, the U.S.-backed war on Yemen will receive even less attention than it already does because of the focus on a possible U.S. attack on Syria, and the one war that the U.S. has the influence to stop with relative ease will continue while our government needlessly escalates its involvement in another war.

Read more:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/trump-prepares-to-launch-...

Meanwhile:

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Earlier, US President Donald Trump accused Russia and Iran of providing support to the Syrian President Bashar Assad and said that he would make a decision within 48 hours on how to respond to Saturday’s alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma which Damascus is being blamed for. He didn’t rule out a military option.

Moscow and Damascus dismissed reports of a chlorine bomb allegedly dropped by Syrian warplanes on Douma, with the Russian Foreign Ministry describing them as an attempt to help the terrorists and justify possible military intervention in Syria from abroad.

READ MORE: PHOTOS Allegedly Show US-Coalition Convoy Heading From Iraq to Syria

On March 13, Russia’s military chief of staff, General Valery Gerasimov, said that Moscow had intelligence about militants in Eastern Ghouta preparing a mock-up chemical attack in the area.

The senior official added that the US could use the fake attack as a pretext for striking out at government quarters in Damascus.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/military/201804101063388078-us-syria-warships/

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with an incapacitating toxin known as 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate or BZ, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, citing the results of the examination conducted by a Swiss chemical lab that worked with the samples that London handed over to the Organisation for the Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons (OPCW). 

The Swiss center sent the results to the OPCW. However, the UN chemical watchdog limited itself only to confirming the formula of the substance used to poison the Skripals in its final report without mentioning anything about the other facts presented in the Swiss document, the Russian foreign minister added. He went on to say that Moscow would ask the OPCW about its decision to not include any other information provided by the Swiss in its report.

Lavrov said that the Swiss center that assessed the samples is actually the Spiez Laboratory. This facility is a Swiss state research center controlled by the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection and, ultimately, by the country’s defense minister. The lab is also an internationally recognized center of excellence in the field of the nuclear, biological, and chemical protection and is one of the five centers permanently authorized by the OPCW.

The Russian foreign minister said that London refused to answer dozens of “very specific” questions asked by Moscow about the Salisbury case, as well as to provide any substantial evidence that could shed light on the incident. Instead, the UK accused Russia of failing to answer its own questions, he said, adding that, in fact, London did not ask any questions but wanted Moscow to admit that it was responsible for the delivery of the chemical agent to the UK.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/424149-skripal-poisoning-bz-lavrov/